Boys lacrosse: Burnt Hills-Balston Lake mutes rally, sends Pelham home
LATHAM — It was a difficult climb, but Pelham overcame a bumpy start with a pair of goals late in the third quarter to get within a goal of the lead.
And in a span of 90 seconds, the momentum was gone.
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake netted three unanswered goals to close out the quarter, drastically altering the Pelicans' mood. The Spartans did not slow down in the fourth and posted a 12-5 win Saturday in a NYSPHSAA Class C regional final at Shaker High School.
"We made a few mental mistakes, but we got those goals and really thought we were going up after that, but it just didn’t work out that way," Pelham midfielder Eric Elbery said. "It reminded me of our game against Mamaroneck. We were playing well and they put in a few and kind of deflated us."
Subregional: Pelham moves on to regional final with a win over Rondout Valley
Sectionals: Pelham solves Pearl River, runs away with the Section 1 Class C title
NYSPHSAA scoreboard: Scarsdale and Pelham headed for regional finals
Almost immediately, the legs got heavy.
"That was a tough gut punch," Pelicans coach James Rogers said. "They were getting early offense before our slide packages were in place, which is what good teams do. If the slide’s not there, they just turn the corner. Our defense has played like warriors all season long and I really think today’s score is not indicative of how well our defense played today. They really had us in transition and man-up."
Shane McClernan sandwiched a pair of goals around a Kevin Carney score to make it an 8-4 lead going into the fourth quarter. And there wasn't anything left for another comeback run with Spartans faceoff standout Rocco Mareno dominating the X.
What it means
Pelham is going to wish seven regulars well in the coming days and begin working to get a young cast up to speed in hopes of making another run in the next year or two.
"It was a great season," Elbery said. "We had a lot of fun and won a Section 1 championship for only the second time in program history. I loved everyone on the team."
Player of the game
Carney was the offensive catalyst, finishing with four goals and two assists.
By the numbers
Burn Hills-Ballston Lake (18-2): Colden Swisher had two goals and two assists. ... McClernan finished with two goals and one assist. ... Nick Bailey and Jack Scalise each scored once.
Pelham (14-8): Elberry scored a pair of goals. ... Daniel Johnston, Matteo Johnson also scored.
Quotable
"It does make you tired," Elbery said of the decisive run. "Your energy is up and then it’s down and it’s not easy to bring it up again, but that team had a ton of great players."
Up next
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake plays Long Island champion Manhasset in the East Championship at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at SUNY Albany's Ford Stadium.
Mike Dougherty covers boys soccer, boys lacrosse, girls basketball and golf for The Journal News/lohud.com. He can be reached at mdougher@lohud.com, or on Twitter @hoopsmbd, @lohudlacrosse, @lohudhoopsmbd and @lohudgolf.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Boys lacrosse: Pelham falls to Burnt Hills-Balston Lake in regional
